Social Mobility in Asia: Advocacy, Collaboration and Action

Social mobility is a necessary and timely theme to investigate as global and regional conversations have increasingly picked up on the topic, with power, privilege and access to opportunity being explored and crucially, given due recognition for their role in one’s advancement both in the workplace and in wider society.  

The investigation of social mobility provides an important springboard to progress work in many facets of DE&I and wellbeing. In fact, it could be argued that social mobility and access to opportunities underpin all the work that we do, given the personal and intrinsic nature of the topic. Social mobility affects everyone to a certain degree and often the impacts can go unacknowledged, meaning that it is vital to shine a light on the central nature of its theme and its implications for driving progress in Asia and beyond. 

Utilsing the findings of our research and leveraging insights gained from our position as a thought-leader in DE&I in Asia, Community Business plans to embark on a holistic campaign to promote and encourage social mobility among diverse communities in the region. The campaign will intersect Community Business’ key focus areas, namely:  

• Advancing The DE&I Journey  
• Building Disability Confidence  
• Championing LGBTQ+ Workplace Inclusion  
• Promoting Gender Equality  
• Understanding & Ensuring Wellbeing  

Our key focus areas are rooted in the UN Sustainable Development Goals and all our work contributes to them in the following areas:  

• SDG 17: Partnership for the Goals – Working directly with leaders - current and future - increasing their understanding of key issues, motivating them to act and encouraging them to be bold in their pursuit of responsible and inclusive business practices.   
• SDG 5: Gender Equality & SDG 10: Reduced Inequalities – Leading companies in developing an intersectional approach to diversity, equity and inclusion, highlighting and examining key issues from a local market perspective, facilitating dialogue and sharing best practices, tools and resources.   
• SDG 3: Good Health & Wellbeing – Working with companies to broaden their understanding of work-life harmony and adopt strategies designed to empower employees to be happy, healthy and engaged.   
• SDG 8: Decent Work & Economic Growth – Encouraging companies to look beyond the boundaries of their organisation and proactively create opportunities for disadvantaged or under-represented groups to participate more fully in society.   

Each of these SDGs has a direct link to the benefits of Social Mobility and we are committed to developing a multifaceted campaign that will address each of them explicitly. With this in mind, we have organised the campaign into three pillars: advocacy, collaboration and action, providing a comprehensive framework to ensure we develop holistic interventions and truly service vulnerable communities in our target markets.  

Data Driven Research  

Community Business is embarking on an ambitious research market covering seven markets across Asia, assessing attitudes to Social Mobility, creating a link between academic findings, grassroots community efforts and workplace initiatives to provide employers with guidance to their people strategies and practical suggestions on how to drive programmes in their organisations to promote social mobility. 

Deliverables:  

• Research publication  
• Launch presentation and panel discussion 

Leading with Localisation 

While the data collection portion of our research will be translated into local languages to ensure respondents feel comfortable discussing the topic, we would like to ensure that the campaign can provide value to all communities that we interact with in Asia. To do this we aim to translate the remaining assets into local languages. These include the publication itself as well as other campaign activities. We will tailor interventions in each market to take local context into account, understanding the barriers to social mobility that each market faces and adapting accordingly. 

Deliverables:  

• Translation of assets where possible  
• Local market customisation of campaign deliverables (ongoing) 

Applying an Intersectional Lens 

We are conscious that social mobility is a concept that can affect everyone, in multiple ways, at multiple points in their life and career. We want to intentionally apply an intersectional lens to social mobility, to ensure that the nuances are fully understood and explored. Below are some wider themes that we expect to adapt, expand upon and add to as the campaign progresses.  

• Gender: taking gender as an example, we recognise the double burden that women face, particularly in Asia, when it comes to caregiving and we would like to highlight the intersection of care, gender and access to social mobility. Utilising evidence already laid out in our previous research on Balancing Career & Caregiving in Asia (2020), We plan to develop complementary thought leadership that explores and highlights this topic. 
• Board Diversity: building on our established record monitoring Women on Boards in Hong Kong, we want to expand the conversation to explore the concept of diversity of thought and experience at the board level, recognising that to truly future-proof their businesses, gender should not be the only factor taken into consideration. Race, class, age, sexual orientation etc are all crucial experiences that play into building a comprehensive group of leaders. We recognise that social mobility is not a singular event in one’s life, there are opportunities for progression at multiple times and being overlooked for a board position might be another example of this.  
• Disability: Community Business has a strong reputation for working to build disability confidence among employers in Asia. Utilising this foundation, we will explore the link between disability and social mobility, building upon and localising conversations had in the West to share insights relevant to our markets in Asia.  

Deliverables:  

• Panel discussion(s) 
• Podcast expert interview(s) 
• Consulting & Training interventions  

Championing Grassroots Partners  

The spirit of social mobility lies in partnership and we will focus our efforts on collaborating with grassroots partners to address the challenges that people with low social mobility face across the region.

Deliverables:  

• Supplementary published guide of partners and their work  
• Select partners panel / podcast engagement  

Building a Research Community  

Our Knowledge Partner for this research project is EY who we are working in close partnership with to build a framework for data collection and detailed methodology. Over and above this formal, data-driven role, we have developed a tight-knit working relationship with the team at EY and they will offer expertise and support in the rollout of some of the campaign activities.  

In addition to our knowledge partner, we are working with Sponsor organisations from across the region to fund the research and increase publicity and awareness for the Social Mobility research and campaign.

At the heart of Community Business is our belief in the role businesses have to spark change in the communities the operate in. Close, two-way partnerships to tackle taboo issues such as Social Mobility in Asia highlight how necessary it is to develop a varied community of stakeholders to continue advocating for progress.  

Deliverables:  

• Corporate case studies  

In a bid to deepen our understanding of the topic and different attitudes to social mobility across the region, we conducted several focus groups, bringing together a wide range of organisations and lived experiences to discuss social mobility in greater detail. Our focus group discussions were held in Hong Kong and Singapore and were complementary to individual interviews across all markets in the research scope. Dominant themes explored in these sessions have been an invaluable source of qualitative data to help shape our employee survey questions, which will be used to create quantitative insights, informing our overall research findings. 

Deliverables:  

• Focus groups  

Community Focused Programming  

Many of the barriers to social mobility lie in the informal side of social interaction. We plan to develop material to upskill people in the soft skills that can prove a barrier to mobility and inclusion. This can include confidence building, interview skills, networking, CV etiquette etc. Format for these assets will include both live/in-person public workshops and a series of social media friendly videos to ensure we reach the widest audience possible.  

Within our LGBTQ+ inclusion pillar we will continue our Mentoring Programme for the Asia region and have plans to expand the Programme to work with secondary school pupils as well as the launch of our tailored Programme for the India audience.  

Through our Consulting & Training arm, we have developed and offer bespoke Mentoring Programmes, tailored to specific organisational needs. These will continue to be run and managed by Community Business and we can develop further programmes for clients based on their interest.  

Deliverables:  

• Ongoing mentoring programme engagement

Corporate Sensitisation  

To complement our community focused programming, we plan to work with organsations to address social mobility barriers from the inside. Utilising the insights from our research project and address touchpoints across the employee life cycle, we will develop Consulting & Training interventions to help organisations contextualise social mobility. 

Deliverables:  

• Bespoke Consulting & Training offerings

• Public workshops and collaboration with community partners

Breaking Barriers to Health and Wellbeing  

From a wellbeing perspective, we would like to explore and spotlight the relationship between social mobility and access to support – the stigma that prohibits people from seeking treatment and prioritising their mental and physical health. We will revisit our publication that explored this topic (a pioneering research project from 2018 when mental health was much more taboo) and apply the insights through a social mobility lens to drive our awareness campaign.  

Deliverables:  

• Exploration through our This Is Me campaign  

• Thought-leadership exploration through podcast or panel discussions